


Anywhere

by Kol



Category: 88 Lines About 44 Women - The Nails (Song)
Genre: F/M, Hitchhiking, Implied Sexual Content, POV Female Character, Truckers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 14:30:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5294849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kol/pseuds/Kol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reno's heading anywhere. He's happy to oblige.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spiderfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderfire/gifts).



She trudged along the road, her thumb held out on the end of a drooping arm. Somehow, hitchhiking had seemed much more romantic when she was packing and plotting her escape. In reality, her feet were sore, her arm was tired, her hand was cold, and no one had stopped for her. What's more, she was only about two hours away from her hometown. She could turn around now and still be back in time for dinner.

At an hour out, her optimism had trumped her tiredness, but now her arm quivered and her feet ached and dinner and a shower were sounding good. _No!_ she thought fiercely. She had made herself a promise, and there was no turning back.

The welcome sound of wheels on the pavement broke through her musing, and she lifted her arm slightly higher. Her shoulder muscles burned with the effort, but, for the first time, she was rewarded with the sound of brakes. The sound made her weariness evaporate and she quickly spun around, switching thumbs and smiling widely.

It was a big rig, with a bright teal cab and a plain white trailer, and to her further relief, the driver didn't look like a creeper. He was of medium build, with brown hair and eyes, neither too pale nor too tanned, and his smile was friendly.

As he came to a stop a few feet ahead of her and rolled down the window, she hurried to catch up. "Hi there!" he called. "Where ya headed?"

"Anywhere," she replied. _Anywhere but home._

"Well, I happen to be headed anywhere," he chuckled. "Where ya from?"

She wasn't going to leave so obvious a breadcrumb trail back home, but she'd already picked the perfect nearby large place. "Reno."

"Well Reno, hop on in!"

\---

He was going to Salt Lake City, he said, and that sounded fine with her. He kept calling her Reno, and she was fine with that too. The fewer ties to her real home and self, the better.

She'd head of Salt Lake, of course - it was bigger than Lake Tahoe, which she'd only seen once, as a child. She barely remembered Lake Tahoe, but she remembered that it was beautiful. She hoped that Salt Lake was beautiful too. Not as beautiful as the ocean, probably, which she dreamed of seeing one day, but beautiful enough.

When she got up the courage to ask, he said that Salt Lake was pretty enough, but that the ocean was much better.

They stopped for the night at Elko, at a truck stop beside a McDonald's. He sent Reno over to get dinner for both of them while he filled the tank. Then they sat in the abandoned playground beneath the sickly orange lights and ate their lukewarm fries together. The silence was only broken by cars whizzing by on the nearby freeway and the occasional slurp from their drinks.

When they finished, they returned to the truck. "Reno, you can sleep in yer seat if you don't want a hotel," he said.

"Thanks," Reno said, leaning against the passenger side window. She wasn't so naive as to think that men like him picked up girls like her for nothing. He wasn't asking, but later she intended to pay her way.

\---

He didn't wake her in the morning, but just started to drive. She finally woke up and pulled the curtain aside just in time to see the ten mile marker sign for Salt Lake.

She grabbed her jeans and tried to shimmy back into them while still half on the bunk, and he chuckled. "Don't worry; we've got a ways yet to go." he said.

"Anywhere's fine." She didn't want to overstay her welcome.

"Don't worry, Reno, I'm not gonna kick you out on the side of the road."

_But that's where you found me_ , she thought.

Almost two hours and a quick stop to unhitch the trailer later, he pulled up in a clean suburban neighborhood. "Is this still Salt Lake?" she asked.

"No, this is Ogden," he said, opening his door.

Reno quickly followed him. "I thought you were taking me to Salt Lake City," she said. She shouldn't be complaining - he didn't have to pick her up yesterday after all, but once he had picked her up, she thought that they had come to a pretty specific arrangement.

He knocked on the door and then, before Reno realized what was happening, he was back in his truck and starting it.

"Wait!" she ran towards him.

"Don't bother," a voice said.

Reno spun back around as the truck pulled away and found a woman standing in the doorway. "What?"

"I'm Mary Ellen. Come on in, honey."

"I don't understand," Reno said, still confused.

"You're not the first of his girls to end up on my doorstop," Mary Ellen said. "Now, come in and have some grilled cheese. Seattle should be just about done with the lemonade."

"Seattle?" Reno asked.

"His last trip. What's your name, honey?"

"Reno," she replied bemusedly.

Mary Ellen snorted. "Of course it is. Boy couldn't remember a name if it was tattooed to his right hand."

"You know him?" Reno asked tentatively, even as she followed Mary Ellen into her neat, comfortable home. Obviously Mary Ellen must know him, or he wouldn't have knocked on her door, but Reno was having trouble connecting the dots beyond that.

Mary Ellen smiled fondly. "Yeah, I know him. He's a sweet boy, but not the sticking around type."

They reached the kitchen, and Reno found another girl who looked about the same age as her. She was stirring a jug of lemonade and she smiled wryly at Mary Ellen's words.

"Reno, Seattle," Mary Ellen said in introduction. "Seattle here just got a job in Salt Lake last week," she explained. "She's saving up for an apartment."

Reno nodded, but wasn't sure what she was expected to say.

Thankfully, Mary Ellen took pity on her. "That boy picks up girls pretty regular. And if they ain't going some place in particular, he brings them here for me to help sort out. Seattle's been here about - what, three weeks?"

"Four?" Seattle guessed.

"Three, four." Mary Ellen shrugged.

"So you're his..." Reno trailed off. She didn't think Mary Ellen was old enough to be his mother, but she wasn't sure what else to call her.

"I crossed his path once, long ago," Mary Ellen didn't seem offended, thankfully. "I wasn't one for the trucking lifestyle, though."

"Still, he's always welcome round your house," Seattle teased.

"No point in denying that," Mary Ellen replied, placing a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches on the table. "Well, tuck in!"

Seattle put the pitcher on the table too and then sat down across from Reno. "We're all just notches in his bedpost," she told Reno.

"Not that he's got bedposts in that truck of his." Seattle snarked.

Mary Ellen shrugged. "Eh, bedpost, steering column, same thing." Then she turned back to Reno. "So, Reno, welcome to Nails' girls."


End file.
